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THE 

Battle of Guilford Court House 

North Carolina 



And the Preservation 
of that Historic Field 



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The Record Job Office, Greensboro, N. C. 



ST" In i)iii'sn:ni('(' ol' llic (Icloi'iiiiiiiilioii of (lie IJiilisli (Jovern- 

iiieiil, ill 177!), io (ransfor (lie seal ol' active lioslilitics Iroiii the 
^ Noitliern to the Soul hern I te})ai-tinent. Sir Ilenrv Clinton, 

*7 ('oniniaiiiler-in-( Miief of the I<]n<>lish forces in America, sailed 

*■ southward I'roin New York, invested (Miarleston, S. (\, and in 

May, 17S0, captured the city with practically the whole vSouth- 
oru Army, then under (leneral Lincoln. The British ])lan of 
the cam])aign was t(» capture South and North Carolina and if 
l)ossil)le, Mrginia, and hold these at least, as time and the for- 
tunes of war in the future might dictate. Charleston having 
fallen, Clinton sailed in June for New York and left Lord 
Cornwallis supplied with all they deemed necessary for the 
completion of the work. In August, 1780, Cornwallis gained 
at Camden, S. C, an overwhelming victory over General (Jates, 
leaving the department destitute of troops, except 700 beaten 
veterans and the militia of North Carolina and Virginia, yet to 
be raised. The late General Henry V. Boynton, in an address 
delivered at Guilford Battle Ground on July 4th, 1900, says: 

"The enemy was resting along the southern border of this 
State, awaiting the ripening of the crop to advance and subdue 
it. North Carolina had only her militia with which to resist 
invasion. Along her southern border the sky was black as mid- 
night in a tropical storm. Did North Carolina falter? Let 
King's Mountain answer, let Cowpens testify, let Guilford 
Battle Field respond.'' 

The heroism of the actors in the Battle of King's Mountain 
is unsurpassed in the annals of militia in the time of war. The 
moral effect of the battle was immense. It quelled the Tory 
spirit of the country and inspired the dejected Whigs. It was, 
however, a battle between militia, brave and heroic as they 
were, and its material advantage to the country was small. 
Colonel Furgeson was, I believe, the only Briton on the field, 
accompanied by 150 to 200 New York provincials, wiio were 
regulars, and the remainder of his force, about a thousand 
men, consisted of Tories. King's Mountain was fought Octo- 
ber 7, 1780. Even the battle of Cowpens, fought January 17, 
1781, in which 000 of the finest of English Regulars were 
killed or captured, seemed only to have aroused Cornwallis to 
the proper prosecution of the original and all-important plan 
of the campaign. He at once drove Greene from Charlotte 200 



miles across the State of North Carolina, and across the Dail 
River into Virginia, with fierce and determined activity. 
Greene, unable to meet him at the time, ett'ected his escape at 
Irwin's and Boyd's Mills, seventy miles east of Guilford ("ourt 
House, on the 15tli of February, 17S1. Cornwallis reached the 
southern bank of the stream on tlie same day. Unable to cross, 
Cornwallis fell back to Hillsboro, N. (\, fifty miles southward, 
remained there till the 2(ith, and then marched westward to 
Guilford County, reported to contain much food and provender 
for the support of an army. Having- thrown cavalry and light 
infantry across the river previously, Greene re-crossed with his 
command into North Carolina on the 23rd and, holding this 
between the British army and the river, proceeded westward 
a little north of, and in the rear of Cornwallis. Having been 
outgeneraled by Greene in the recent long retreat, Cornwallis 
deliberately awaited Greene's choice of time and place for the 
battle which both knew must come off. Greene, having received 
expected reinforcements, advanced ■ to Guilford Court House 
on the 14th of March, 1781. On the 15th occurred the battle 
of Guilford Court House. This was fought by the generals in 
command of the respective forces— British and American — 
numbering at the least ten thousand men, and including the 
flower of the British army in America. The result of this bat- 
tle was the immediate and utter abandonment by the British 
general of the original purpose of the campaign, to-wit: the 
subjugation of South and North Carolina and Virginia ; and 
the restoration by General Greene to the Union of South Caro- 
lina and Georgia, both of Avhich had been over-run and garri- 
soned. From Guilford Court House, Cornwallis sought safety 
under the guns of his ships at Wilmington, and the British his- 
torian, Tarleton, says : Though urged to come out of his de- 
fences at Wilmington and again engage Greene, alleging that 
Greene might entangle him among the rivers of South Carolina 
and destroy his command, Cornwallis deliberately allowed 
Greene to i>ass him, marching southward, unopposed — to de- 
stroy in detail his outpost and garrisons in South Carolina 
and restore that State and Georgia to the Union. In April, 
Cornwallis, unopposed, marched northward across North Caro- 
lina into Virginia. Here he was unable to effect, or at least 
to carry out another plan of co-operation with Clinton, and 



YorktoAvn lollowed. Tlio seeds of llio sni'i-eiHl(M* a1 Yorklowii 
and of the bittei- (inaiiel between Cornwallis and Clinton soon 
i"ollowini>', Avere sown thieHy at (inilf<ti'd Court House. These 
are the fruits of the liattle of (luilford Court House. Tlie one 
fact Ihat C.reene fell back cijihteen miles northward to a forti- 
fied camp and left Corneal lis in ]»ossession of the field on the 
15th obscured and for.years continued to obscure the true char- 
acter of this most important American victory. Greene had 
written (Jovernor Jefferson that he would deliver battle Avhen 
his own jud^Quient apjn-oved and not before — that he should 
tight it with militia, preserving his regulars, all he could exi»ect 
to get and thus drive (^ornwallis from North Carolina. All 
this he did. Steduian, a British historian then present, states 
that immediately after the withdrawal of Greene's Regulars, 
his third line, "in good order," (^ornwallis ordered a pursuit, 
which order was speedily countermanded on his better infor- 
mation of the true condition of affairs. There was no pursuit. 
From a point far south of the battlefield Greene wrote on the 
30tli the following: 

Greene's Headquarters^ Ramsey's, 
''Deep River, March 30th, 1781. 

''I wrote you the 23rd instant from Buffalo Creek (South 
(iuilford), since which time we have been in pursuit of the 
enemy with the determination to bring them into action again. 

On the 27th we arrived at Ridgen's Ford, miles above this, 

and found the enemy then lay at Ramsey's. Our army was 
put in motion without loss of time, but Ave found the enemy 
had crossed some hours before our arrival and with such 
precipitation that they had left their dead unburied upon the 
ground." 

Tarleton says : "The British obtained information that Gen- 
eral Greene's army had reached Buffalo Creek, southward of 
Guilford Court House. The day before the King's troops ar- 
rived at Ramsey's, the Americans insulted the Yagers in their 
encampment. The Royalists remained a few days at Ramsey's 
for the benefit of the wounded and to complete a bridge over 
Deep River, when the light troops of the Americans again dis- 
turbed the pickets. The British crossed the river and the same 



day General Greene readied Ramsey's with the intention to 
attack them. The halt of the King's troops at that place nearly 
occasioned an action which wonld not probably have been ad- 
vantageous to the royal forces on account of the position and 
the disheartening circumstance of their being encumbered with 
so many wounded officers and men in the action at Guilford." 
From Wilmington on the tenth of April Cornwallis Avrote 
Clinton in New Yoi-k and in a letter, not an official report, that 
the "victory at Guilford, though one of the bloodiest of the war, 
was very complete." Greene, he said, never came within reach 
after the battle nor fired a gun. We would ask. Why? If 
Tarleton and Greene are to be believed and as the relative 
position of the two armies and their movements prove, it was 
because Greene could not catch him. Clinton wrote Cornwallis 
on the thirteenth of April to come to Virginia and bring part 
of his troops, supposing that Greene had crossed the Dan 
and had fled to Virginia. On the twenty-third, before getting 
Clinton's letter of the thirteenth, Cornwallis wrote Clinton of 
his "great apprehension because of Greene's movements to 
South Carolina" and of his '-anxiety" over the situation there; 
and adds that he is under the necessity of adopting this "haz- 
ardous enterprise" (of leaving Wilmington for Virginia) at 
once "hastily and with the appearance of precipitation as I 
find * "■ that the return of General Greene, with or without 
success, would put a junction with Phillips in Virginia out of 
my power." He had stated to Clinton concerning his desert- 
ing to his fate Lord Rawdon at Camden, exposed to Greene, 
that he had sent Rawdon messages to the effect that Greene 
was approaching him, and declared his own departure from 
Cross Creek for Wilmington a necessity. "I could not remain 
at Wilmington lest General Greene should succeed against 
Lord Rawdon and by returning to North Carolina, have it in 
his power to cut off every means of saving my small corps, 
except that disgraceful one of an embarkation with the loss of 
the cavalry and every horse in the army." 

That the battle of Guilford was a momentous disaster to 
Cornwallis and the British cause the criticism of Clinton and 
reply thereto of Cornwallis establish beyond cavil. (Read 
Clinton's Narrative and Cornwallis' Reply — 1783.) 

The Guilford Battle Ground Company is an association of 



patriotic gentlemen, incorimrated by the Legislature of North 
Carolina in 18S7. Its ])ur[)ose is, ''The ]>reservation, reclama- 
tion and adornment of the I>attle Field of (inilford ('onrt 
Plouse." Such was the jjrogress made by individual efforts 
and subscriptions from fl.OO upwards, the State Legislature 
now exempts and for some yeasr past, has exempted the Asso- 
ciation from taxation and makes it an annual appropriation 
of several hundred dollars. 

The Association owes not one dollar. The beautiful park 
itself contains about one hundred acres of Piedmont hill and 
vale, fairly improved and adorned as to its groves and meadows 
and abundant waters with canopied founts, dams, grass plots, 
buildings, museum and twenty-nine monuments, many with 
elegant bronze tablets and five crowned with statuary. The 
title to these grounds has been examined, approved, paid for 
and the deeds recorded. It lies in the direct line of travel from 
New Yorlv to New Orleans and is traversed by the great South- 
ern Eailway. It is imbedded in the hearts of North Carolin- 
ians, and citizens of other States, many of whose progenities 
fought here. It is fostered by the State's Legislature, by in- 
dividuals and by the several railroads centering here. The 
thrifty and rapidly growing City of Greensboro, in whose 
suburbs it lies, annually" affords the country, on July 4th, a 
grand outing upon the grounds, where the living and dead 
speakers of the land address the people, and where all are 
made happier men and better, because wiser, citizens of the 
republic. 

The Fayetteville (N. C.) Observer, a journal of th.e highest 
respectability, recently published in its columns the f(y-l*'wing: 

"The story of this Association and its successful work,' reads 
like a romance, when we consider that it has its being and has 
done its work in the hitherto barren, historical soil of North 
Cartdina." 

On January 4, 1905, the Hon. Hugh Hastings, State His- 
torian of the State of New York, wrote : 

''I feel that you deserve the sympathy and encouragement 
of all patriots in your efforts, etc." 



LIBRRRY OF CONGRESS 



011 712 443 5' 

In the Washington Post of July , 1903, we have this 

language from the pen of General Henry V. Boynton : 

**Tlie vast body of the Revolutionary patriots in the North 
should take notice of this North Carolina work, * * a field 
preserved and paid for, with its history collected and preserved 
on tablets and monuments. Tliose who have brought it to suc- 
cess are at the sunset of life. It would be in every sense fitting 
if the National Government should receive this finished work 
of patriotism (freely tendered) and provide for its future 
care." 

We have no salaried officer ; pay no dividends ; exact no gate 
fees; have raised with great labor and expended here many 
thousand dollars, and now tender freely our jjroperty to the 
National Government. 

We ask that our proffer be accepted or that the Senate Bill 
now before the House to erect a monument to General Greene 
for |2o,000 be adopted. In view of the large amounts voted 
elsewhere over the land, we think, our labors and expenditures 
considered, Ave ought not to be cut off with the one thousand 
dollars previously voted us. A wise and just public policy 
encourages diligence and liberality in patriotic endeavor, 

JOSEPH M. MOEEHEAD, 

President Guilford Battle Ground Co. 
Greenf^boro, N. C, October 25th, 1909. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




III llllilllll Hill nil III 

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pELS3 



